I have a friend who is extremely into international sports games. When the team that he supports loses an important game, he gets really upset. When his team recently got kicked out of the competition, I caught him almost crying. Now whatever his particular predilections are, why is this not forbidden? Should it not go under

You cried a futile crying and so I will give you something to cry
about

I have nothing against the question, but I think it would be appropriate to specify whether or not you are the same person who asked it here: needaneitzah.com/questions/20/… This way no one suspects you of plagiarism. Once you do so you'll get my +1.
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Dov FJul 9 '12 at 18:18

3

Also, you could improve this question by citing and providing more context for the quotation.
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Isaac MosesJul 9 '12 at 18:45

2 Answers
2

I think the question is the phrase "crying for chinam". My suspicion is it's not "you cried about something unimportant", rather it's "you cried when there was every reason not to."

G-d had promised them they'd enter the land, and here they were crying "oh boo hoo we won't enter the land", there was no reason for them to be sad.

Whereas if my favorite team loses, well I feel upset. That's not a sign of diminished faith of any sort, G-d hadn't promised me my team would win.

There's likely some measure of good sense of proportion, how upset should a sports game make me (and how much should(n't) it allow me to reduce my normal performance of service to G-d), but I think applying the comment from the Spies is quite extreme.

Note the conversation between G-d and Jonah at the end of his book; Jonah's upset is a teaching moment, not a cause for punishment:

"Jonah, are you really that upset over a silly gourd?"

"Yes G-d, so upset I wish I was dead."

Ah-hah! Now you understand why I don't want the metropolis of Ninveh to die.

Note the question is tagged hashkafah-philosophy rather than halacha. While the question ("why is this not forbidden") sounds like it's asking about halacha, I doubt that that was actually the asker's intent. +1, though.
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msh210♦Jul 13 '12 at 16:38